2003 Dodge Dakota Chase Vehicle

     Well, a couple of reasons for the change from the Jeep to the Dakota.  First was that as much as I liked my Jeep for chasing it was rather cramped for the long hauls to the Cap Rock or South Central Oklahoma.   Being 6'4" tall it is not exactly the best suited height for a Jeep.   Second......I don't mind crashing in the back and catching a few Z's at the end of a chase.   In order to do that in the Jeep my feet usually ended up resting on top of my camera mount in the front seat.  And one of the main reasons was the spare tire.   Last year in the middle of a chase I got a flat with a storm bearing down on me.   I wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea of chasing with the little donut wheel and giving up the chase was just not an option.  So I waited until a repair truck came out and repaired the tire.   I was chasing again within an hour, however I was not happy I lost an hour of chasing.   So I started thinking about what I wanted in my NEXT chase vehicle.    The full size spare tire suddenly seemed to take precedence. I looked into getting the full sized spare for the Jeep, but the rack for it was running $700.   I wanted a truck, but a full sized was out because it would never fit in my garage.   A bigger  SUV like a Tahoe or Durango seemed a rather pricey solution.  So, one day while having the Jeep serviced I went browsing and decided I liked the Dakota.   I took it for a ride and that was all she wrote.   The pros were that it met all of the requirements for what I wanted in a chase vehicle as far as perks...........cruise control, A/C, full size spare, a 6'5" bed, 4 wheel drive and more power.   After 6,000 miles of chasing so far in the 2003 season I can confidently say I did the right thing.   The only real con I can think of right off is the gas mileage is about 3 or 4 MPG less than the Jeep.   Right now I am getting 14.1MPG.  I was getting 350 miles on a tank with the Jeep and am only getting about 330 miles  with the Dakota.

List of Equipment I Use for Chasing:

Data and Mapping:

Dell Inspiron 600M Laptop w/ Centrino Technology and a Sony back up.

WxWorx Satellite Weather Mapping and Weather Data w/ a Holux GPS.

DeLorme Street Atlas 2004 w/ USB GPS.

ORINCO Wireless  Gold PC Card

Ether Designs 10" Deluxe cAntenna for wireless signal boost.

Motorola 3 Watt Digital Bag Phone w/ Ositech 5 Of Clubs Cellular Modem.

 SWIFT WX 2.0  storm tracking and data software.

Netstumbler sniffing software for picking up wireless networks on the run.

Radio Equipment:

ICOM IC-207 Ham Radio from The Ham Radio Outlet here in Denver.

Bearcat BC895XLT Scanner Radio for NOAA Radio.

Bearcat BC350A Scanner Radio for scanning HAM frequencies.

Photographic Equipment:

Canon EOS 20D 35mm w/ 28-200mm Zoom Lens.

Canon 18 - 55mm Lens

Canon AE-1 Program 35mm w/ 28-200mm Zoom Lens.

Canon FX w/ 50mm Lens.

Video Equipment:

Sony FX1 HD Camcorder

Sony VX-2000 mini DV camcorder w/ a Sony 8MM backup.

Century .65 Wide Angle Lens.